“No more delay,” UN relief chief urges immediate entry of winter supplies into Gaza

Statement on Gaza by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

For months we have sounded the alarm on essential winter supplies for Gaza, including throughout the UN General Assembly.

Foreign Ministers and partners have assured me of support, but also repeatedly said that progress would be hard until after Israeli elections. Now we’re told to wait for the formation of a government. In case anyone has any doubt about international humanitarian law: this is not an acceptable excuse, as the international community and Board of Peace have made clear.

We are now seeing the consequences of delays, blockages and funding cuts: lives lost, a population once again at great risk. 
What makes this even more infuriating is that they are at this needless risk from weather that is not a threat where decent shelter exists. And would not be such a threat had we been able to supply decent tents and essential winter kit.

Had Palestinians been allowed to access open areas that are less prone to flooding.

We have set out a clear plan for the supplies we need to get in. Not in weeks, but weeks ago. This includes durable shelter, warm clothes, blankets, bedding and safe heating solutions. And it includes generators, fuel, engine oil, spare parts, equipment to pump out water, remove debris and clear explosive ordnance.

No more delay. Open all the crossings, not just one. Let our vital NGO partners work. Allow the commercial markets to function. Stop this collective punishment. Fund the plan. End this predictable, preventable suffering. The world is not powerless here.